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GERMANY: Nicolai von Funer has become a partner of Von Funer Ebbinghaus Finck Hano in Munich. The firm has also opened an office in Uluaanbaatar in Outer Mongolia: Euormarkpat Mongolia Ltd PO Box 58 Baga Toiruu 31 Ulaanbaatar 46 Mongolia Tel: +976 1 31 30 97 Fax: +976 1 32 55 87 E-mail: monpatent@magicnet.mn

Guidelines clarify trade mark law

The Court of First Instance of Madrid has rendered the first Spanish judgment concerning the so-called Year 2000 chaos (Y2K), that is to say, the chaos derived from the fact that most computing systems are unable to differentiate the year 2000 from the year 1900, as they read only the last two numbers.

The following comments relate to the laws and rules in Mexico regarding copyright protection terms, in accordance with different laws in force in Mexico since 1947. The purpose of this note is to explain how they could have impacted on foreign works of authorship. The author chose the case of US works because of the question NAFTA has posed, and because extending it to other countries laws would have made this note very long.

The Supreme Court of Cassation has confirmed in a decision dated October 28 1998 and now published that section 1-bis of the Trade Mark Law prevents the registrant from the enforcement of his exclusive rights against third parties who use his trade mark, if it is necessary to indicate the destination of a product or service, especially as an accessory thereto or as a spare part thereof.

US: Sony Pictures Entertainment has abandoned its plans to make new James Bond films under an agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal settles an 18-month legal dispute between the two companies, and follows a temporary restraining order granted to MGM last year.

Sebago puts pressure back on politicians

Domain name overhaul planned

Even a casual student of United States patent law developments during the past year unavoidably would have happened on multiple discussions of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit´ s State Street Bank & Trust Co v Signature Financial Group (149 F3d 1368 (Fed Cir 1998)) decision, that held computer software for conducting methods for doing business to be patentable subject matter and not per se unpatentable subject matter. Not only has a majority of the US legal community positively responded to this decision because it addresses critical patentability questions involving software, but also technology owners have responded with increased patent application filings. By last December, the US Patent and Trademark Office reported that applications claiming inventions in a fashion similar to the claims in State Street Bank had increased by over 40% over the previous year and that it expected to issue over 300 patents with business method type software claims by October of this year. Unmistakably, the pump was primed even before the State Street Bank decision issued.

When the Russian Patent Law entered into force in 1992, few people thought it would take six long years to form the High Patent Chamber. The need for such a tool was enormous. Disgruntled applicants had no other recourse if they were turned down at the Chamber of Appeals. The Chamber of Appeals solved the bulk of the problems when examiners refused, for whatever reason, to grant a patent. However, roughly one case out of four would leave the applicant dissatisfied and be a headache for the Patent Office and for the applicant. Such cases simply piled up and waited for better times.